Chopping block: Four-day school week

A reader wanted to know what a four-day school week would save the state.

“It would depend upon how a four day week is carried out,” said Debbie Ratcliffe, a Texas Education Agency spokeswoman. “If the funding formulas were not changed and districts did not extend the length of the school year, there would be savings to the Foundation School Program, which is the state’s main school funding source.”

She said the TEA would incur systems modifications costs related to attendance reporting and state aid calculations — an estimated $60,000 in contracted system changes.

Rep. Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, has proposed HB 1326 that would allow school districts to move toward four-day school weeks starting with the 2011-12 school year. His bill would not affect the amount of state aid school districts are entitled to, according to the fiscal analysis fo Guillen’s bill. The bill was heard in the House Education Committee last month and was left pending.

Ratcliffe said the agency has not calculated those potential savings because the amount would depend on how, exactly, individual school districts manage their schedules.

In Amarillo, for example, a four-day week would save less than1 percent of the district’s more than $200 million budget, said Les Hoyt, the assistant superintendent, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

Since 2009, lawmakers in at least 13 states have considered measures that would allow school districts to implement four-day school weeks, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. In some states where this is done, the schools stay open for limited purposes on the 5th day, in order to provide supervision of students for working families.